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Hyundai Hopman Cup

Tsonga, Cornet Win First Hopman Cup Title for France

First title for France. Photo hopmancup.com

hopmancup.com January 4, 2014 Perth - World No.10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
tuned up for the Australian Open in grand style by guiding France to the Hyundai Hopman Cup title at Perth Arena. France won the event for the first time, beating Poland 2-1 in a thrilling final in
front of more than 10,000 fans.

Tsonga overcame a second-set scare to beat Grzegorz Panfil 6-3 3-6 6-3 in the men’s singles before world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska levelled the tie with a drama-filled 6-3 6-7 (9-7) 6-2 win over
Alize Cornet. Tsonga then dominated proceedings in the deciding mixed doubles to lift France to a 6-0 6-2 triumph in just 47 minutes, with Cornet jumping into his arms once they secured victory.

Earlier, Cornet looked down and out in her singles match after losing the first set and going 5-3 down in the second. The world No.27 managed to save a match point, but she broke out in tears a
few points later when a series of long-winded rallies left her struggling to breathe. Despite Cornet being on the verge of collapsing, match umpire James Keothabong gave her a time violation.

France celebrates after victory over Poland. Photo hopmancup.com

Cornet battled on to win the 80-minute second set in a tiebreak. But she had no energy left for the deciding set, with Radwanska securing the epic win in 153 minutes.

Tsonga’s failure to convert any of his seven break points in the second set of the men’s singles rubber came back to haunt him as world No.288 Panfil converted his sole break point. The
28-year-old was filthy on himself for missing those chances, but he made good in the third set as he secured the win in 100 minutes.

Panfil was only called up for the Hopman Cup after world No.21 Jerzy Janowicz pulled out with injury. The 26-year-old had racked up just $A154,294 in ATP career earnings before the mixed-teams
tournament. But he will walk away with the biggest pay cheque of his career, a cool $90,000.

Tsonga had three match points in the second set, but he blew them all as Munoz-De La Nava pulled off a series of fine strokes. The Spaniard needed treatment on his knee early in the deciding set,
and Tsonga made the most of his opponent’s discomfort to close out the win.

Cornet breezed through the first set in 39 minutes against Medina Garrigues, but her momentum was halted by a hamstring injury during the second set. The 23-year-old stretched and flexed her left
leg on numerous occasions, but fought on to win the match in 81 minutes.

Cornet said the injury was only a minor discomfort and wouldn’t force her to miss the final of the $1 million mixed-teams tournament. Cornet has won three singles titles and two doubles titles
since turning professional in 2006. But the world No.27 said guiding France to their first Hopman Cup title would hold a special place in her heart.

Poland’s pairing of world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska and Grzegorz Panfil finished on top of Group A after beating Australia 2-1 on Thursday night. Sam Stosur put up a dogged fight before succumbing
to Poland’s world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6 6-4 6-3 at Perth Arena after Bernard Tomic recorded a 6-1 6-4 win over Grzegorz Panfil. The Polish pair needed to win a set from the live mixed doubles
to prevent Canada reaching Saturday’s final and they did so breaking Stosur’s serve to take the second set 7-5 on their way to a 1-6 7-5 [10-8] victory.

Radwanska needed an injury time out midway through the second set of the women’s singles to receive treatment on her heavily strapped right shoulder. But the 24-year-old bounced back strongly,
levelling the match at one set apiece before securing the win in 143 minutes.

Results Friday January 03 2014

[1] Poland v [7] Australia

Bernard Tomic bt Grzegorz Panfil 6-1 6-4

Agnieszka Radwanska bt Samantha Stosur 3-6 6-4 6-3

Radwanska/Panfil bt Stosur/Tomic 1-6 7-5 10-8

[3] France v [8] Spain

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Daniel Munoz-De La Nava 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 6-2

Alize Cornet bt Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2 6-2

Cornet/Tsonga bt Garrigues/Munoz-De La Nava 8-3

Canada Keeps Hopes Alive, Defeats Italy 3-0

Canada's Bouchard and Raonic. Photo hopmancup.com

hopmancup: January 2, 2014 Perth - Canada has given itself the best possible chance of qualifying for Saturday’s Hopman Cup
final, thanks in part to Flavia Pennetta’s injury and impressive play from Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic.

The Canadian pair won their respective singles matches before clinching a dead mixed doubles rubber over Australian substitute player Bojana Bobusic and Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1 6-4.

Bouchard won the first 11 points of her match before world No.31 Pennetta could even stop the flow but it was clear early on something was not right as her usual flat forehand lacked pace and
control. The Italian called for an injury timeout to have her wrist heavily strapped but she would last only one game further, calling an end to the match while trailing 4-0.

Raonic, meanwhile, atoned for a shock loss to Grzegorz Panfil with a straight sets 6-2 6-4 win over the winless Andreas Seppi. The loss extended Seppi’s winless streak in singles at the Hopman Cup
to six after failing to get on the board at last year’s event and falling to none from three in the 2013-14 event.

hopmancup.com January 01 2014 Perth - France’s hopes of winning their first ever Hopman Cup have been given a major boost after
they defeated the US 2-1 at Perth Arena. World No.12 Sloane Stephens got the US off to a perfect start with a 7-5 6-0 win over Alize Cornet in the women’s singles.

But Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 win over John Isner levelled the tie, before France won the deciding mixed doubles 6-1 5-7 10-5. France will reach the final of the mixed-teams event if they
beat winless Spain on Friday.

Isner committed 17 unforced errors in the first set of the men’s singles rubber, with three of those coming early in the one-sided tiebreak. The only break of the match came in the eighth game of
the second set, with Tsonga securing the win in 76 minutes. Tsonga missed most of the second half of 2013 with a knee injury, but said he was feeling strong as he builds towards this month’s
Australian Open. Hyundai Hopman Cup

Aussies Fall to Italians; France def Czechs

Tomic and Stosur. Photo hopmancup.com

hopmancup.com December 31 2013 Perth - A tired Bernard Tomic felt like he had just played a nine-set monster after fighting
back to secure a 4-6 6-3 6-2 win over Italy’s Andreas Seppi at the Hopman Cup on Tuesday. But it wasn’t enough to lift Australia to victory, with Italy winning the deciding mixed doubles to end the
home nation’s title hopes.

Tomic was feeling the effects of a heavy training load after practising for five hours on Monday and a further two hours before he took on Seppi. The gruelling schedule took its toll on Tomic as
he conceded the first set. But the 21-year-old dug into his reserves to turn the tables, with his win levelling the tie at 1-1 after Sam Stosur had earlier crashed to a 6-4 6-4 loss to Flavia
Pennetta. Italy won the mixed doubles 6-3 6-4 to ensure Australia’s title drought would extend to a 16th year.

Stosur said she was frustrated but not despondent after slumping to consecutive singles defeats. The 2011 US Open champion, who suffered a three-sets loss to Eugenie Bouchard on Saturday,
committed 26 unforced errors against Pennetta. Stosur has famously struggled to find form during the home tennis summer in recent years, but says there’s no need to panic just yet ahead of January’s
Australian Open. Stosur has now lost all five of her meetings with Pennetta, who is ranked 13 places behind the world No.18 Australian.

Poles Stun Canadians; Panfil Upsets Raonic, Radswanka Beats Bouchard

Grzegorz Panfil stuns Milos Raonic. Photo hopmancup.com

hopmancup.com: December 30, 2013 Perth - Unheralded journeyman Grzegorz Panfil has pulled off the biggest win of his
career, overcoming a rankings gap of 277 places to stun world No.11 Milos Raonic 7-6(1) 6-3 to hand Poland a surprise 2-0 victory over Canada.

Agnieszka Radwanska had earlier got the Poles off to an expected, albeit hard-fought, 1-0 lead with a 6-3 6-7 (7) 6-2 triumph over Eugenie Bouchard; the pair producing some of the highest quality
shot-making of the tournament to date.

The Canadians managed to salvage a point from the tie with a 6-3 5-7 10-3 win, but the night belonged to Panfil, a player used to plying his trade in far-flung challenger events in the likes of
Romania, Cyprus and Turkey. Having showed glimpses of his booming lefty serve and heavy forehands while leading Andreas Seppi by a set on debut before the Italian retired with illness, Panfil played
with no fear against the biggest server in the men’s game.

Radswanka triumphed over Bouchard in 3 sets. Photo hopmancup.com

With games going predictably on serve to a first-set tiebreak, Panfil played out of his skin, crunching a Raonic second serve for a backhand winner before a superb low stretch-backhand volley
winner into the open court and an unreturnable serve bringing up five set points.

He closed it out, much to the delight of a large Polish contingent in the crowd and built on the momentum early in the second set, breaking for 2-0 before ending the set, 6-3.

“I’m really surprised, it was my best match in my career so I’m really happy and back into Australia after six years. I’m really happy to be here, yeah I still can’t believe it,” a beaming Panfil
said.

hopmancup.com December 28, 2013 Perth, Australia - Milos Raonic’s thunderous first deliveries have found their range in
Perth Arena on Saturday night, with 18 aces helping the Canadian hand his country a 1-0 lead over Australia in a 7-6(6), 6-1 victory over Bernard Tomic.

Eugenie Bouchard then gave the Canadians an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie, upsetting Sam Stosur 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 before the Australians salvaged some pride before their home crowd with a straight
sets 6-2, 6-4 win in the mixed doubles.

It was the perfect birthday present for the world No.11 Raonic, who celebrated turning 23 on Friday, and marked a solid return after a lengthy off-season. “Sort of four to five weeks locked away
training and doing the work and you want to start competing, you get hungry, you start missing the competition and to be here and to start this well is definitely something I’m happy and positive
about,” Raonic said.

The Aussies won the mixed doubles to avoid sweep. Photo hopmancup.com

In the women’s singles, Stosur broke for 4-3 and looked confident smothering the net to hold for 5-3 in the first set. She closed the opener out impressively, with a jamming serving sending
Bouchard’s backhand return wide for 6-4.

From there the 19-year-old Canadian lifted her game, while the errors began to mount from the Stosur racquet. Despite the crowd eagerly willing her on, Stosur was unable to hold out a
free-swinging Bouchard at 3-4 in the third, chipping a stretched backhand wide to surrender the break before overcooking consecutive forehands to give Bouchard the win.

“I was trying to be the aggressive one and step in and control the point and I think I overall kind of did that well,” Bouchard said. Official
Website

Results Saturday December 28 2013

[1] Poland vs [6] Italy

A.Radwanska (POL) d. F. Pennetta (ITA) 6-2, 6-2.

G. Panfil (POL) d. A. Seppi (ITA) 6-4, 2-2 ret.

A. Radwanska/G. Panfil d. F. Pennetta/O.Anderson 6-2, 6-1.

[4] Canada vs [7] Australia

M. Raonic d. B. Tomic 7-6, 6-1.

E. Bouchard d. S. Stosur 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

S. Stosur/B. Tomic d. E. Bouchard/M. Raonic 6-2, 6-4

Sunday 29 December

[5] Czech Republic v [8] Spain

[1] Poland v [4] Canada

Monday 30 December

[2] United States v [8] Spain

[3] France v [5] Czech Republic

Preview

Star-Studded Mixed-Team Tournament at 2014 Hyundai Hopman Cup

tennis.com.au November 29, 2013 Perth, Australia - Nine of the
world’s top 20 players, including three top ten players, are set to play Hyundai Hopman Cup 2014. Petra Kvitova, John Isner, Sloane Stephens, Milos Raonic, Tommy Robredo and Eugenie Bouchard are
among the stars confirmed for the ITF’s official mixed teams’ competition from 28 December 2013 to 4 January 2014, taking place at the state-of-the-art Perth Arena for the second consecutive
year.

World No.7 Kvitova returns to Western Australia after winning the crown with Tomas Berdych in 2012. In 2011 the 23-year-old from the Czech Republic won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon,
going on to win the year-end WTA Tour Championships, play in the winning Czech Fed Cup team and finish the year as world No.2, a career high.

The powerful left-hander has won 11 WTA career singles titles and will partner Radek Stepanek who makes his Hyundai Hopman Cup debut.

Stepanek, a former world No.8 and currently ranked No.6 in doubles, won men’s doubles titles at the Australian Open in 2012 and the US Open in 2013, and was a member of the champion Czech Republic
Davis Cup team in 2012.

Americans Sloane Stephens and John Isner. Photo hopmancup.com

USA’s No.1 powerhouse and current world No.13 John Isner will team with rising star Sloane Stephens. Milos Raonic, 22 years old and on the cusp of the top 10, will be joined by 2012 junior
Wimbledon champion Eugenie Bouchard for Team Canada. Raonic is Canada’s highest ever ranked player and currently holds five ATP career singles titles, two of which he has won this year. He is looking
forward to the unique format of the event.

Former US Open champion Sam Stosur will fly the flag for Australia with Bernard Tomic, who looks to continue his unbeaten record at Perth Arena. Poland will make their debut with world No.4
Agnieszka Radwanska and world No.15 Jerzy Janowicz, the first Polish man ever to make the semifinals at Wimbledon.

Team France will see world No.9 and fan favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga team with No.27 Alize Cornet who replaces Marion Bartoli who retired from the sport in August. This is Cornet’s second
appearance at the Hopman Cup; she teamed with Gilles Simon in 2009.

The 2014 champion Anabel Medina Garrigues is back for the fourth time, defending the title for Spain alongside world No.19 and two-time Hyundai Hopman Cup champion Tommy Robredo. World No.22
Andreas Seppi and US Open semifinalist, world No.31 Flavia Pennetta, will represent Italy.